In this study, a new kind of magnetic vanadium-based catalyst was successfully prepared and employed to produce 2, 5-diformylfuran (DFF) in the liquid phase through selective oxidation of biomass-derived 5-hydroxymethylfurfur (HMF) with air as oxidant. It was found that magnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles supported NH4 center dot V3O8 showed excellent catalytic performance with the achievement of 95.5% HMF conversion along with 82.9% selectivity to DFF under optimal reaction conditions. More importantly, the catalyst could be readily separated from the reaction mixture by a permanent magnet, and recycled several times without the loss of its catalytic activity. Graphic The NH4 center dot V3O8/Fe3O4 catalyst showed high activity for selective oxidation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural into 2, 5-diformylfuran.